Critical Role of Animal Science Research in Food Security and Sustainability (2015) / Chapter Skim
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5 Capacity Building and Infrastructure for Research in Food Security and Animal Sciences
5 Capacity Building and Infrastructure for Research in Food Security and Animal Sciences
Pages 311-350
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institutions in the field of animal sciences, and that these agreements can be beneficial and effective in enhancing and improving the quality of research and training in animal sciences. The committee also recognizes the critical role that private industry plays in conducting research and providing research outreach as a part of their 311
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5-1 Research in Animal Sciences Federally, most animal science research is funded by the USDA via two mechanisms: competitive grant funding and intramural allocations to the Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
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Despite this lack of congressional priority and the declining role that USDA funding has played in terms of its contribution to the overall public funding portfolio for agricultural research (NRC, 2014) , USDA has funded many notable advances in animal health, food safety, genetic improvements, reproductive efficiencies, nutrient utilization, and animal production systems.
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. SOURCE: Data from USDA NIFA (2014a)
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a CRIS reporting categories RPA 301-315 (reproduction, nutrition, genetics, animal genome, animal physiology, environmental stress, animal production and management, improved animal products, animal disease, external parasites and pests, internal parasites, toxicology, and animal welfare)
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. Programs included are National Research Initiative, Hatch, McIntire-Stennis, Evans-Allen, Animal Health, Special Grants, Competitive Grants, Small Business Innovation Research Grants, and other CSREES grant programs (Form AD-419 field 31)
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. Animal health was the highest priority (23 percent of the funding)
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Animal agriculture research investment (with a mean of $241,538,400 per year) was the highest for beef (25 percent of the animal and aquaculture investment)
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Underfunding animal science research has long-lasting consequences, including a decrease in faculty positions and animal, dairy, and poultry science departments; reduction in infrastructure, trained students, and industry and government jobs; and reduced innovations needed to address challenges. Once lost, it will take a greater investment with a longer time lag before productive research can be regained, if possible.
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. TABLE 5-5 Average Annual USDA ARS Appropriations by Knowledge Area from FY 2010 to FY 2014 % of Animal & % of Aquaculture Knowledge Area Mean per Year, $ Appropriation Research Animal health $65,977,200 6 27 Food safety $53,633,800 5 22 Food animal production $47,809,800 4 20 Aquaculture $30,457,800 3 13 Entomology $11,490,200 1 5 Quality and utilization of agricultural products $9,025,400 1 4 Pasture, forage, and rangeland systems, agricultural system competitiveness $8,364,400 1 4 Agricultural and industrial byproducts $5,124,000 1 2 Manure and byproduct utilization $3,723,200 0 2 Human nutrition $3,559,600 0 1 Biorefining $808,200 0 0
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. The lack of change in percentage allocations among animal science research priorities within USDA, despite the changing pressures facing animal agriculture research, suggests a need for a more structured and consistent research priority planning process that involves representative stakeholders.
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Through its publications, CAST is able to address research needs, including the priority of food animal sciences research, by composing teams representing various stakeholders. EFSA is the keystone of European Union risk assessment regarding food and feed safety including agricultural production as a whole.
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Because of the structure and procedures utilized by EFSA, these reports have provided scientifically reliable, mostly independent scientific opinions about the topics and have been used as a basis for developing research priorities and synthesizing systems approaches for research in animal sciences. Priorities for Infrastructure Federal formula funding for agricultural research has declined significantly since the 1980s, thereby exerting a significant impact on research and the infrastructure needed to support that research.
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• The percentage allocation of public funding by agencies including USDA ARS, CSREES/NIFA, and ARS should be reprioritized by species, taking into account the long-term projected consumer demand for that animal product and the potential for reducing the environmental impact contributed by animal agriculture, with a focus on basic research. 5-2 Research Outreach in the Animal Sciences To facilitate agricultural research outreach to stakeholders throughout the United States, the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 created a unique entity, the Cooperative Extension (CE)
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The loss of extension capacity will impact the ability of CE not only to help animal agriculture address the upcoming challenges related to food production and food security nationally and globally, but to bridge the communication gap between producers and stakeholders about animal agriculture. Priorities for Infrastructure CE has been particularly hard hit by decreases in federal funding allocations, with the number of CE FTEs declining by 22 percent from 1980 to 2010, and the underfunding impedes progress in animal science research enterprises.
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This attention was mainly due to the field's engagement with companion animals, but was not relevant to other animal species, including food animals. New approaches, businesses, and business models for building human capital for higher education have evolved but with limited utilization by universities and other research entities in the field of animal sciences (APLU, 2014a)
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Early training and education in animal sciences focused mainly on improving husbandry, nutrition, and breeding. The historical demand for efficiency in animal production led to a research focus in animal science departments on nutrition, breeding, physiology, and genetics, which were research activities that were integrated in several ways with the training and education of undergraduate and graduate students.
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, although the numbers of both have remained essentially flat since the mid-1990s. It is unclear what these figures reflect about the current numbers of graduate students with expertise or emphasis in the animal sciences, because universities may also confer disciplinary (e.g., physiology, immunology, animal behavior, and nutrition)
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and Ph.D. degrees awarded in animal sciences.
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Undergraduate research is also facilitated at the annual meetings of the animal science societies (e.g., American Society of Animal Science, American Dairy Science Association, Poultry Science Association) with competitions for undergraduates for presenting research or quiz bowls to demonstrate their knowledge of the animal sciences.
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This mismatch between industry needs and traditional animal science curricula, along with decreasing enrollments, has been identified as a driver for the decline in the number of poultry science departments in the United States from 45 departments in the 1940s to only 6 today (Thaxton et al., 2003)
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This suggests that courses that provide this kind of integrated content related to the animal sciences could not only be beneficial for animal science students, but could interest students outside of the major and help to promote an understanding of animal agriculture among non– animal science students and faculty.
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To meet national and global training needs in animal agriculture during a time of financial constraint, creative approaches will be necessary. One obvious example is increasing the availability of online course offerings not just for undergraduate and graduate students, but to provide opportunities for continuing education (APLU, 2014b)
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There is also the potential for additional industry and foundation funding to be directed toward strengthening academic programs in the animal sciences. Tyson Foods, for example, recently donated $1 million to the USPOULTRY Foundation to endow a fund to recruit students to study poultry science, with contributions to the fund totaling more than $8 million by July 2012, while the Harold Ford Foundation provided nearly $200,000 in grants to universities with poultry science departments to encourage students to enter the poultry industry (Shane, 2014)
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As the NRC (2014) committee noted: "If talented young investigators in agriculture decide to look for higher funding rates outside USDA, they could alter their focus away from agricultural research; some researchers have indicated that this is already happening." Priorities for Infrastructure Undergraduate enrollments in animal sciences are robust and increasing.
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This makes it difficult to adequately train undergraduate and graduate students for industry employment, and challenging to conduct applied research that can contribute to current animal food production and sustainability needs. It can also create problems for animal science departments in meeting the regulatory requirements of the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy and the certification standards of the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation for Laboratory Animal Care with regard to the care and use of animals in research and teaching.
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There is a need for systematic assessment of the current state and capital needs of the physical infrastructure of animal science departments nationally, as well as the development of funding strategies to address deferred maintenance issues and new facilities construction needs. 5-5 Capacity Building to Increase Diversity It has long been recognized that increasing diversity is a critical part of capacity building for agriculture.
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Because gender and cultural issues are inseparable, involving women as well as men in agricultural research issues should take into account existing gender roles and how these can be transformed through education and capacity building (Meinzen-Dick et al., 2011)
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It is time to catch up to remedy these gender and other diversity imbalances that negatively affect the ability to conduct and disseminate animal science research that is relevant to improvements in animal agriculture nationally and globally. 5-6 Partnerships for Research, Outreach, and Teaching to Leverage Resources Land-grant universities should play a critical role in informing public policy related to animal agriculture and food systems.
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Investment in human capital formation to promote economic growth, the development of the knowledge economy, and regional and local development is vital to ensure a vibrant research enterprise that contributes to a reliable food security system in general and food animal production. While some of the benefits to higher education are not easily quantifiable, they are indeed real and important for reliable, tangible, and efficient research in animal sciences.
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note that in developing publicprivate partnerships, "one of the critical issues is whether public agricultural research complements and thereby stimulates additional private agricultural R&D investments." There is legal precedent for the public sector to develop partnerships with private-sector entities (Toole, 2013)
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. Some select partnerships addressing agricultural research between federal agencies, the public and private sector, as well as with academia are described below.
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FASS was formed in 1998 to provide a forum for scientific societies to discuss common issues and to coordinate strategies and plans of action to meet public needs and benefit animal agriculture. Members of the Federation include the American Dairy Science Association, the American Society of Animal Science, and the Poultry Science Association.
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(2013) notes that "public investments in agricultural research and development could be reinvigorated as land grant universities have an opportunity to seek new and innovative partnerships with the private sector to support animal research." Additionally, there are models where "joint ventures with the allied animal industries could leverage strengths of academic institutions with private-sector capital.
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These and other gaps related to capacity building led the committee to recommend that a strategic planning process be undertaken to identify capacity needs within the animal sciences and develop a roadmap for addressing those needs.
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2013. From Innovate 2012: Research in animal agriculture -- A high return and a globally valuable investment in our future.
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2014. The evolving institutional structure of public and private agricultural research.
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Agricultural Research and Development. Economic Brief 19.
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1999. What are animal science departments doing to address contemporary issues?
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USDA ARS (U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service)
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